20 years after IPO, Jeff Bezos’ Amazon stronger than ever

Amazon.com Inc. has been founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos who still runs the company as CEO today, launched its website in 1995 and made its IPO on the Nasdaq in June 1997. 20 years later, the 230,000-employees company has grown into a commerce and retail game-changer and has become one of the GAFA – for Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon – meaning a behemoth of the internet and the global economy as a result.

As Amazon continues to grow, expand and diversify, some analysts argue whether it could eventually overextend itself and take financial toll for it in the long run. While Amazon was already a key player of the US economy, Jeff Bezos made a strategic buy when he acquired The Washington Post in 2013 for USD 250 million, gained strong political clout as a result and became the world’s third richest man since then.

Summing up, after starting as an online bookstore, can Amazon really be a long-term “do and sell it all?”